Saturday, January 13, 2024

Church News (August 16, 1958) and the Fulfillment of Joseph Smith's Last Prophecy Concerning the Mission of Dan Jones

  

"Are you afraid to die?"

 

Captain Dan Jones, lying beside Joseph Smith on the floor of Carthage Jail, heard the Prophet whisper those words. The warm air of that June night in 1844 was charged with a tense foreboding. The little Welsh river boast master asked: "Has that time come think you? Engaged in such a cause I do not think that death would have many terrors."

 

"You will yet see Wales, and fulfill the mission appointed you before you die," Joseph reassured his companion.

 

Dan Jones left the jail a few hours before the fatal hour of martyrdom. A year later he was standing on is native soil preaching the Gospel.

 

Others had preceded him. Missionaries had been laboring in Wales since 1840, James Burnham and Henry Royle being among the first. The enthusiasm and power of Elder Jones added momentum to the work already begun. In a year he baptized 700 converts and organized 28 branches. After three years' activity, 3,603 members had been baptized in Wales and 55 branches organized. Dan Jones had brought about 1,000 people per year into the Church.

 

In February 1849, Elder Jones reduced the Church membership in Wales by 249. The number his leadership sailed from Liverpool bound for America and the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. ("Called By Prophecy: Welsh Sea Captain Preaches Gospel In Native Land," Church News [August 16, 1958]: 12)

 

Further Reading:

 

Resources on Joseph Smith’s Prophecies